Vampires

Becoming a Vampire

The band thing isn't working out as well as Nikita planned. She's still bored, and her life is quickly fading away, which isn't very good for a Family Oriented Sim. With Saint still committed to his acting career until they get enough money to move, Nikita is growing desperate. She won't ruin their marraige, but she's heard of a way to greatly extend her life. However, it comes with a price.

Nikita needs to hit up a late night club, something other than Sports Zone. To make sure she's got the energy for it, she takes an afternoon nap first so she'll have plenty of energy. She gets into her formal attire once again, then heads out to Plasma 501 in the evening.

Nikita doesn't even have to go into the club proper to find what she needs... or rather, who she needs. Just at the door is a woman with yellowish skin and haunting eyes, as you can see in the screenshot. This is Elvira Slayer, and she doesn't have a skin condition: she's a vampire!

She's also a celebrity, so Nikita has to impress her first. Elvira is only a 2-star celebrity, so it doesn't take very long. They're soon contacts, if not friends, but they continue to chat and have a good time during the night. They maintain contact even when they both go home, though they're still not yet friends.

Nikita stays awake longer and sleeps late, thus shifting her waking hours to better encompass the evening and night. The next evening at about 6pm, she calls up Elvira and invites her over. Sunlight isn't the death sentence for vampires that it was in The Sims 2, but it's still not very healthy for them. AI-controlled vampires automatically shift their waking hours as well, so calling late -- even calling after midnight -- won't bother them.

While Nikita makes the call, let's take a look at Elvira's entry in her Relationships panel. Vampires are easily spotted by the red outline around their picture, as you can see in the screenshot to the right. As far as Nikita is concerned, that's the only difference: something superficial. Interacting with a vampire while you are normal is no different than interacting with any other Sim.

Eventually Nikita and Elvira become fast friends, thanks to a decent Charisma score and some concentrated relationship boosting over a couple days. Nikita then takes a deep breath and chooses the "Ask To Turn" social interaction. In truth, the command has been there the whole time, but unlike previous versions of The Sims and most fiction, a Vampire bite in The Sims 3 is a positive action. AI-controlled vampires won't do it unless they're at a decent relationship level with the one who's asking for it.

Elvira seems confused by the request but accepts and immediately bites Nikita on the arm. She looks like she regrets it for a moment, but after a flutter of ethereal bats that came out of nowhere, Nikita seems pretty happy. She's got a neutral moodlet called "Unusual Blemish," but that's about to change.

Over the next couple days, the bite starts to get itchy, and that moodlet changes. Nikita lives life as normal as she can, though there is no initial way to reverse the bite, and it starts to bother her. She sticks with it though, and after two full days, the turn is complete!

Being a Vampire

Now that the turn is complete, Nikita's need meters get slightly changed. Take a look at the screenshot to the right. Other than the color change, they're all the same except that the Hunger meter has changed to a Thirst meter. Vampirescan eat food, but doing so doesn't help them. Their only source of nutrients is blood, but they can get it several ways.

The most extreme way to get blood is to drink it from another Sim, and there are two ways you can do this. First, Nikita could simply use a "Drink" social command against any other non-vampire adult, which is a positive social interaction. However, despite it being a positive one, the target will decline if they're not at least somewhat friends with her. After all, any Sim who donates their blood in that way receives a "Weakened" buff for 24 hours. (Yes, strangely, it's a buff, not a debuff.) While a Sim is under effects of Weakened, he can't donate blood again. This means that Nikita could sip blood from Saint, but only once per day, which wouldn't be enough to sustain her.

If she gets really thirsty, she can go to any community lot and choose the Hunt self-interaction. This has her automatically look around and assault a random non-vampire adult, though this is a negative social interaction for obvious reasons. Also, because she actually has to hunt around a bit, the command may take a while to actually work. You definitely don't want to Hunt if the Thirst meter is extremely low.

For a faster pick-me-up, and what will likely be your most frequent method, just head to the fridge and select the "Quick Meal... | Plasma Juice" command. It won't fill Nikita up, but it'll get her through the day. She'll need another one later that night, just like a normal meal, but it's not terribly inconvenient.

Finally, the grocery store sells Plasma Fruit, which can be consumed for on-the-go meals when a willing human isn't available. Plasma Fruits can be planted with a high enough Gardening skill, which Nikita plans on doing once they manage to move out. Of course, planting and caring for Plasma Fruits requires some sunshine, so she may need to get Saint to do it.

Even though we said in the previous section that sunlight is no longer the immediate death sentence it was in The Sims 2, that doesn't mean it's harmless. If a vampire is out in the daylight, she'll get an immediate two-hour debuff. If she doesn't get out by then, she'll get an even worse debuff and start to suffer. Stay out too long, and she will die.

She is protected indoors though, even in a room with windows. A windowed room will cause a minor debuff, but not the same debuff. If you're good at Building Basements, and you're in a conventional lot, you can simply make an underground bunker for yourself and you'll be protected at all times regardless of the time of day.

That said, the night is really when a vampire shines... metaphorically, of course. Nikita's Energy meter barely moves at night, and she can run incredibly fast. More importantly, she gains skills at a very high rate, indicated by the bat that flies around the progress bar. It's not instantaneous by any means, but it's a significant boost that will get her quickly up any skill track. It's a great time for Nikita to stock up on skill books, especially Gardening, so she'll have a head start when she finally starts to work with her Plasma Fruits in her future house.

Arguably the most important change is her vastly extended life span. She can now live five times longer per life stage. By default, that means over 100 days as a Young Adult, over 100 as an Adult, and over another 100 (possibly more) as an Elder! The only problem is that she'll never be able to hold a conventional job or profession due to her inability to stay outside for long periods of time, so she'll have to rely on Saint for any income.

Curing Vampirism

Nikita has a plan. It may take a while, but now that she's a vampire, she's got time on her side. Once Saint manages to climb his way to the top of the film career track, they'll finally move across town in a house, and they'll be ready for children. The problem is that vampires and children don't mix. Not because of the whole blood-drinking thing, but because kids need to be dealt with at inconvenient times.

In The Sims 3, unlike previous iterations in the franchise, curing vampirism is extremely easy. Nikita figures once they move, she can just buy her mortality back. All it takes is a simple "Buy Vampire Cure" at the Science Facility. It's $3000, which is a little pricey, but by the time she's ready for it to be cured, they should be swimming in cash. All it takes is three grand, and she'll gain a special potion in her inventory.

Buying the potion does not mean she has to drink it. She could give it to other Sims, or even stash a few in the family inventory in case others in the family (such as her future children) need to be cured.

Child Vampires

Adults have a chance at passing on their vampirism to their baby if they woo hoo while being a vampire, even if their partner is normal. Most of the effects of vampirism won't manifest themselves until the Sim reaches the Young Adult life stage, although the child will have the paler skin and yellow eyes of a vampire. You can also tell a child is a vampire is by his portrait in any Relationship panel. A red outline indicates vampirism regardless of age.

The main reason children won't have to suffer the effects is because of school; they'd quickly die by sunlight if they had to attend. The instant they have their birthday to pass from Teenager to Young Adult, they'll also gain all the effects of vampirism.

While child and teen vampires don't suffer sunlight damage or increased energy at night, they do gain the benefit of increased skill gains at night! It's entirely possible to have a skill maxed out before ever getting to adulthood!

Teens and below still can't cure themselves of vampirism, even if someone else buys the antidote for them. This shouldn't be a problem thought since, again, kid vamps don't suffer the same problems as their adult counterparts. They can be cured once they hit Young Adult.